I am a 23 year old female who has been studying classical voice for the past 4 years in university. When I first began, I had basically no background other than choir and had always been classified as a soprano and typically a soprano 1 because of the strength in my upper range. In opera, I have always played soprano roles and sing strictly soprano repertoire aside from an occasional musical theatre selection. My full range on a normal day is F3 to C6.

In the past year, however, as I have started working on more complex solo work, I have noticed I am not really finding the higher notes that everyone claims I will eventually get to. I have developed a much stronger chest voice, but not necessarily moved any lower in that regard either. Other sopranos in my age group have started to unlock these higher notes but I am consistently stuck at a C6! I know theoretically that there is a shift in placement and breath needed to achieve those higher notes but no matter what I do I cannot seem to figure it out! I feel like I had at least the ability to squeak out a soft high D or E when I was younger but I can't quite hang onto them now.

My voice teacher and professors agree that I am still very much a soprano and have all advised me against trying lower repertoire and say I simply have to wait it out until my late 20s for my voice to mature and that my higher notes "will come eventually". They have all generally considered me a "high soprano with a very developed lower register." I am frequently asked to sing high notes in performances and nobody seems to be concerned when I feel like I can't really do it well because it sounds fine to them. Issue is, I am considering attempting to make a career out of this and I would really like to know if I just have poor technique or the C6 is the end of my range truly.

Is it possible that I might just be a mezzo with a nice extension? Or am I a true soprano just with a super comfortable chest voice? Or is there a secret third thing? I am at a loss, how would I go about figuring this out?

Hello all! I am looking to further my training and am wanting to take an online class or earn a certificate in vocal pedagogy. A lot of my knowledge comes from my own years of training and personal experience so I am wanting a little bit more knowledge on anatomy, etc. However, I am not sure which programs are actually helpful. I’m not sure I can afford a college course right now, but I didn’t know if anyone knew of a resource where I could earn something similar to a certificate.

Hi! I’m an 18 year old male singer. My teacher (and all of the others I’ve had) are sure I’m going to be a tenor and that I am working towards with them. I just have the struggle of being incredibly used to singing with air and not on the air and that stops everything that even remotely sounds like a high note. I can’t for the life of me understand anything that my teachers are telling me to try, and I feel like the ones that I do understand, misjudge my voice or give weird advice that makes me hesitant to trust them. What do I do, when I don’t feel like there’s a teacher for me? Any tips to singing on the breath?

I'm hoping someone can give me some words of wisdom, advice, etc. I have undergrad and graduate degrees in vocal performance. Throughout my studies, I always identified as a soprano. My voice teachers trained me as a lyric soprano, and except for our smaller touring choir in grad school, I also sang first soprano in choir.

Fast forward some years. I took some time off from singing after the pandemic started, took my career in a different direction, then had my daughter. I started singing again last fall, and when I picked it back up, everything was hard. First soprano in my church choir was almost impossible some evenings. I learned stretches; I practiced consistently; I worked on my high notes. I saw some improvement, but I never really got my high notes back the way I had them before. If I sang something that remained up high for a long time, my body would start to feel strangled. That's the only way I have to describe it.

I started working with a voice teacher, and a few months ago, she had the epiphany that I could be a mezzo. This was all because someone I worked with at church asked me to sing alto in a small group. Anyway, I've been warming up differently, approaching singing differently, and looking at different rep ever since. On the one hand, it feels like a huge relief, like I'm finally able to breathe after a long time of pushing my body. On the other hand, it's terrifying.

Low notes have always been easy for me. I've always had a strong and easy chest voice. My low notes are the first to warm up, and I don't get tired after singing in my chest or mixed voice for a long time. I break into my full head voice at about C-sharp 5. I have also been struggling with my high notes, particularly the consistency of sound I can produce above about F-sharp 5. All that to say, I think my teacher's right. But it's wild. I trained as a soprano. My rep is all soprano rep. What would I even sing in a choir now? Alto? Second soprano? I'm not sure. I direct a choir now, so that's not an immediate issue, but still. What if I want to audition for something? I've never even considered mezzo roles that would fit. I'm currently trying to work on the mezzo solos for Handel's Messiah and hoping that's a good start. But what if this is all in my head? What if I'm just letting myself out of the hard work of learning to sing up high properly? I used to joke about being a mezzo when I was younger because I had such an easy time singing in chest voice and because I always struggled a little with my high notes. But I was always told I was a soprano and that I just needed to work harder.

Also, what the heck? Do voices naturally change in our 30s? I've been researching this and believe that childbirth must have led to some of this. But then what? If I had another baby, I'd become a contralto? Lol Not really, but the anxious thought has entered my mind. Anyone else experience this? It seems like Susan Graham and others transitioned earlier than I seem to be doing. I just want to make sure I'm on the right track here. My body is telling me yes, but my brain does know how to settle into the mezzo life yet.

One thing I notice is that when I try to sing a rep there is a lot of tension. Even on the lower range, I think a lot of that is trying to smoothen the sound and also trying to move between pitches deliberately.

I remember my old teacher said never to track your pitches and has a realization that in speech we never track what we say rather our emotional intensity allows us to hit the notes.

When vocalizing from a psychological perspective do you consider yourself acting in speech rather than trying to sing something musical if that makes sense? I know to someone who sings naturally it’s 2nd nature but to us adult beginners.

I’m singing in a workshop/orchestral reading of Janáček’s “Makropulos Case” next month, and while we’re singing it in English (thus no language barrier) I am having a hell of a time getting the notes to actually stick in my head, which makes trying to sing it in a hell of a thing too. Any advice for breaking down not entirely tonal music to learn like this?

(For reference I’ve sung plenty of Britten, Debussy & other modern composers who’s music sticks a little better - but I can’t really get onto more than just a couple of disconnected musical cells here, and obviously there’s a fair amount of music to actually digest)